MacKinnon Brothers Brewing Co.’s Crosscut Canadian Ale

This beer, from two brothers with impressive credentials (engineering, graduate degree at Heriot-Watt in Scotland), shows just how good beer can be when expertise informs the result.

It is a deep gold, with a rich but clean maltiness and a firm bitterness that is more English than anything else. It pours almost clear from the can without a single of the faults that sometimes attends new releases (no oxidation, no acidity or flabbiness of body, everything right).

I’ve had one or two of their beers including the Wild Peppermint Stout, and each is an excellent, well-made product.